With a nearly endless selection of books, low prices, and speedy delivery, Amazon has revolutionized bookselling, making it challenging for everyone else to keep up.
But retailers like Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org haven’t given up the fight against the ecommerce giant. Here’s how they’re using their unique strengths to chip away at Amazon’s dominance.
The physical advantage: In recent years, Barnes & Noble has revamped its stores, giving local staff more control over the layout and merchandising.
- The goal was to create a more independent feel across its stores, leveraging social media and reading communities to make shopping more engaging.
- The strategy is working—the book chain opened 57 stores in 2024 and plans to open at least 60 this year, according to Fast Company.
Barnes & Noble is expanding its physical presence as Amazon struggles to find its brick-and-mortar identity.
- Since 2022, Amazon has closed all its physical bookstores, shuttered its Amazon Style business and shut down over a dozen Amazon Go locations.
- Instead, Amazon is focusing on its physical grocery banner, Amazon Fresh.
Digital defense: Bookshop.org, an online bookstore connecting readers with independent bookstores, has launched an ebook platform (like Amazon’s Kindle) allowing readers to purchase and download ebooks from local bookstores.
- “Part of surviving the digital age is selling digital products,” Bookshop.org founder and CEO Andy Hunter told The Verge. “If Amazon can do it, your local bookstore should be able to do it, period.”
- The platform will let readers share ebook quotes via social media. The quotes will link back to Bookshop.org, enabling consumers to immediately purchase the ebook and start reading.
Amazon owns about 75% of the ebook market, per The Verge.
- By enabling smaller bookstores to sell ebooks, Bookshop.org helps them compete for consumer dollars without worrying about shipping or logistics costs.
- It also allows readers to support smaller publishers and independent authors, a trend likely to grow in 2025 as social media continues to influence publishing.
- “People are getting frustrated with traditional publishing in a lot of ways and how they’re not supporting their authors…I’ve definitely seen a shift across my book platforms where people want to uplift independent authors, find them, and help them go viral,” content creator Steph Pilavin (@starrysteph) told Elle.
The bottom line: Amazon’s status as the top online bookseller in the US is unlikely to change anytime soon.
- We forecast Amazon’s US sales of books, music, and video will reach $59.46 billion in 2025, 89.2% of total books, music, and video ecommerce sales.
- But that share could decline if competitors can tap into the trends shaping reading culture, like the desire for in-person communities or #BookTok’s popularity.
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